


It Just Takes a Little Patience

by all_we_see_is_sky



Category: EastEnders (TV)
Genre: Ben is a soft Dad at heart, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Lexi gets her sass from her dad, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 10:31:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19392286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/all_we_see_is_sky/pseuds/all_we_see_is_sky
Summary: The fear of Lexi leaving was real and gut wrenching and Ben vowed to make the last day he had with her as fun as possible for the both of them. Adding Callum to the mix hadn’t exactly been his plan but it wasn’t like he was complaining.Aka, I’m hurt by Ben’s sadness and need cute father & daughter time ft. Callum being Lexi’s best friend.





	It Just Takes a Little Patience

**Author's Note:**

> So last nights episode broke my heart into multiple tiny little pieces and I wrote this in a desperate attempt to patch it back up.

The first thing that had shot through Ben’s body when Lexi had murmured quietly about not wanting to go back to Newcastle, surprisingly enough, was fear. He did his best to shush her and assure her he would sort it before sending her on her merry way, all whilst trying to calm himself down and keep his own emotions in check. Coming down to Walford from Newcastle had been an easy decision, mainly because he had plans to get back at his father, but a certain somebody had thrown a spanner in the works and now the thought of leaving sent a icy rush through his veins. 

“Why are you so desperate for us to stay, anyway?” Lola had demanded, shaking her head. She didn’t understand, couldn’t see that Ben was in the exact same position as her only he wasn’t willing to give Callum up so easily. 

“Lexi likes it here. She doesn’t want to go. We’re a proper little family, Lola. I finally get to be the dad she deserves,” Ben was sharp with his response, not wanting to let onto the real reason he wasn’t willing to budge. Lola had looked contemplative for a brief moment before shaking her head and moving past Ben into the kitchen. 

“My minds made up, Ben. I ain’t staying here. Lexi ain’t staying here,” she declared. Fatherhood had never really been on the cards for Ben, wasn’t something he ever thought he would want which was why the hurt he felt at Lola’s words was more than a little bit surprising to him. Bonding with Lexi over the past few months had been amazing. He saw himself in her so much, and maybe he laughed at and encouraged bad behaviour a little too much but they bounced off each other, Ben couldn’t imagine his life without the little girl anymore. Without his little girl. 

Curling his fists against the dining room table, squeezing his eyes shut Ben had begged a quiet ‘let me have her for one more day at least’. Seeing the pain this was causing Ben, Lola agreed with ease and declared that she was going to spend her last day in Walford with her pops. 

Once she left, Ben made his way up the stairs and knocked once before entering his daughters room, seeing her on her bed in her pyjamas still. “I thought your mummy told you to get dressed, huh?” Ben asked, strolling over to sit beside her. Lexi looked up with big blue eyes, giving a little shrug. 

“Mummy told me to put on my uniform but I don’t want to go to school today. She said I didn’t have to!” Lexi gave her reasoning, little arms folding over her chest. Ben couldn’t help but chuckle at her stubborn streak, knowing exactly where she got it from as he pushed her hair from her forehead to give it a soft kiss. 

“Well it’s your lucky day, miss. You don’t have to go to school. You’re going to spend the day with me instead,” grinning while speaking, Lexi’s eyebrows only furrowed slightly, confused as to why she was taking an entire day off school just to spend it with her dad, who quite frankly, didn’t exactly seem like the type to be excited about a daddy-daughter day. “Get ready, I’ll see you downstairs.”

The first challenge of the day came in the form of hair brushing. Dressed in jeans and a flower patterned t-shirt, Lexi came bouncing down the stairs one at a time, brush and a bobble in hand. You’d think after months of being back with Lexi and Lola he would’ve learnt how to brush his daughters hair and do a simple braid, and yet he sat on the couch with the young girl in front of him completely clueless. The first drag of the brush had Lexi practically crying as she gripped the roots of her hair. “Daddy, ouch! That hurt. Do it more gentler,” she demanded in a slightly shaky voice. So Ben gripped the roots of her hair and brushed more carefully until he could drag the brush through her hair with ease. “Okay, now do a plait. It’s easy, you just criss cross the hair,” Lexi described as though it was the simplest thing on the planet. Refusing to let hair get the better of him, Ben tried for fifteen minutes before Lexi got bored and huffed at him to just leave it down. Ben had never felt more relieved in his life. 

The pair of them ended up walking through the square hand in hand, Lexi dragging her dad towards the park. Only when they got there, they were greeted with the sight of Callum Highway swinging uselessly back and forth on one of the swings. “Brooding, are we?” Ben hummed, leaning against the wooden supports as Lexi ran towards the free swing, struggling to pull herself up onto it. 

“Aren’t you a bit big for swings? Daddy push me,” Lexi addressed Ben whilst looking up at Callum, expecting an answer for her first question. Trying to hide his smirk, Ben strolled over to Lexi and began pushing her, murmuring for her to hold on a little tighter. “Swings are for kids. You’re not a kid,” she continued, staring Callum down. 

“Well I-“ Callum looked flustered, his cheeks pinking as he looked between Ben and his kid, blush spreading to the tips of his ears. “I was just thinking. Wanted some time alone to think,” Callum explained and Ben could practically hear the way Lexi rolled her eyes into the back of her skull. 

“Well a park isn’t exactly quiet now is it? People come here all the time to play,” Lexi’s voice dripped in sass and sarcasm and Ben couldn’t help the bark of laughter that came from his mouth at his daughters behaviour, it was well worth the glare that Callum shot him. Strangely enough, Lexi’s sass and tone didn’t scare Callum away and he stayed sat on the swing beside them, pushing himself alongside Lexi so they could keep up a quiet conversation about god knows what. Ben couldn’t hear but he was sure they were talking about some book or something that Lexi had read at school and Callum had read when he was younger too. “Daddy, push Callum too,” Lexi pleaded, her little legs kicking. 

“Oh babe, Callum is a big boy. He can push himself can’t he?” Ben should’ve known Lexi wouldn’t give up so easily, planting and dragging her feet along the floor to grind to a halting stop. She turned, glaring up at Ben until he yielded and walked over to Callum’s swing. “Sorry,” he whispered into Callum’s ear when he was close enough, gripping the metal chain of the swing at the bottom and pulling it back to release it, pushing Callum as much as he could. Pushing Lexi was definitely a lot easier. 

Eventually Lexi got bored of forcing her dad to take turns in pushing both Callum and herself, bidding her new best friend a goodbye as she climbed onto Ben’s back. “He was nice. Even if he is a little strange for thinking in a park,” Lexi decided, laying her head on Ben’s shoulder as he gave her a piggyback ride home. When they got home, Lexi was happy to sit at the kitchen table with Ben sat beside her, both of them drawing and having colouring in competitions. Ben had a competitive streak but when it came to his daughter, seeing the grin on her face when she won was a much better victory than winning itself. 

It was nearing 8pm when Ben got the text. Lexi was curled up in the crook of his arm and was drifting in and out of sleep, holding Fluffy with some animated movie playing on the tv. Ben has to manoeuvre carefully around the small girl to retrieve and check his phone, frowning down at the text from Callum that simply read ‘Can I come over?’, he had never been that blatant. They met in secret, in the park late at night with nobody but the moon watching, behind bushes and in bathrooms. Neither of them had been so bold to ask to go to the other’s house yet. That combined with the fact that Callum hadn’t been in contact since telling Ben that nothing had happened between them, that it wouldn’t happen again, only served to make Ben suspicious. Maybe it was a sign of how whipped Ben truly was when he instantly agreed, or maybe it was just his curiosity. 

It didn’t take long for Callum to show up and, with permission, he walked into the house sheepishly, looking around as though someone was going to catch him at any moment and give him a bollocking for being there. “Don’t worry. Everyone’s out or in bed already. Just us, mate,” Ben drawled, it didn’t help to ease Callum’s obvious tension. However, what did serve to put the man at ease slightly was Lexi blinking owlishly up at the other man, a sleepy grin taking over her face when she realised who it was. 

“Callum. Hi,” her jabs and teasing were put at bay when she was tired, stripped back to reveal the young innocent girl that she really was. It was a lovely sight to see, even for Ben. 

“Are they your drawings over there on the table? They’re lovely,” Callum approved as he perched on the edge of the couch on the other side of Lexi, his smile tender and still a little nervous. “I bet you’re better than your dad huh?” A laugh escaped the man, it sounded a bit forced, strained. Ben knew something was up. 

“Yeah. Yeah I beat him in all the drawing competitions so I’m the drawing queen now. The best draw-er in all of the land,” the words coming from Lexi’s mouth were babbled and almost incoherent, forcing Ben into action. He couldn’t let her fall asleep down here or else he would try to move her, she would wake up and instantly want to play again. 

“C’mon trouble. Let’s get you to bed,” surprisingly, she didn’t put up a fight and let her daddy pick her up, perched on his hip with her arms looped around his neck. “I’ll be back down soon,” Ben whispered to Callum and began moving towards the stairs when Callum stood quickly, probably sending blood rushing to his own head. 

“You forgot this,” Callum looked idiotic standing there with a stuffed bunny in his outstretched hand, but Ben still smirked down at the ground as Lexi reached to accept the toy from Callum’s grip. God, Ben was fucked. He hadn’t felt adoration stir in his gut like that since Paul. 

“Thank you. Goodnight, Callum,” Lexi bid her farewells and easily fell fast asleep when Ben lay her in her bed and tucked her in. For five minutes he stayed, walking down the stairs to be with Callum only when he was sure that Lexi didn’t plan on waking up anytime soon. 

As soon as Ben came downstairs, Callum was looking up with that dear in the headlights look he often wore, his blue eyes shining as apologises instantly started to tumble from his mouth like he had no control over it. “I’m sorry for turning up out of the blue like that. I know you had Lexi today and I didn’t want to intrude on your time with her but I just felt so suffocated in that damn house I-“ he cut himself off with a sharp inhale. 

“You ain’t intruding on nothing. Lex loves you,” Ben chuckled as he walked over to join Callum on the couch. “I’ve got competition,” he joked, raising his eyebrows at Callum. Dealing with and talking about emotions never was his forte, it was much easier to joke about and make light of situations.

“She loves you, Ben. You’re a good dad,” Callum complimented and Ben shifted awkwardly, laying one arms across the back of the couch and behind Callum, the other crossing over his own mid-section. 

“I don’t know about that,” being bashful and self conscious was never really something Ben ever did but his fathering was something that he was secretly insecure about, and he couldn’t quite believe someone telling him that he was a good father. 

Callum didn’t seem like he was going to give up with this and only pushed further and harder. “No. You are. You care so much about her that much is obvious. You want to be with her, you love her. You get father’s that don’t care about their children, don’t care to even bother looking at them for more than two damn seconds,” Callum ranted and Ben let out a small sigh, tilting his head in a curious way. 

“This is about your own dad,” it wasn’t a question, and still Callum nodded. “I’ve had my fair share of dealing with shit dads alright? And yeah it sucks, every kid wants a dad that’s going to love them unconditionally but it ain’t like that. We don’t always get what we want, life has a way of making sure of that. I’ve always been so scared of being a dad to Lexi, terrified that I’ll turn out like my old man. But I grew up and I learnt that I’m not like him, I ain’t nothing like him and he ain’t in control of my life. Your dad ain’t in control of yours either,” Ben’s voice was soft, timid as a hand came to land on the back of Callum’s neck, stroking slowly. After a few moments of observing, Callum leant in, lips determined to meet Ben’s but Ben turned his head, instead pressing a feather light kiss to Callum’s cheek. 

This of all things seemed to open the floodgates and tears rushed down Callum’s face as he pushed himself further into Ben, hiding his face in the younger man’s neck. All Ben could do was hold Callum and stroke slowly through his hair. He wasn’t sure what had brought the wave of emotion on, whether Callum had been in touch with his dad recently, or has dad had recently done something to upset him. Either way, Ben would help Callum through it in whatever ways that he could. 

Being a father was hard, sure. But he wouldn’t change it for the world. He loved Lexi with all of his heart, she was such a sweet girl. Some people, such as Callum’s and Ben’s dads, never quite got the hang of it and that was okay. Callum and Ben had each other to muddle their way through the scarring of their bad parent and Ben was going to do whatever it took to make sure that Lexi didn’t get the same kind or scarring.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you!!!! I hope you enjoyed it and that it gave you what you needed. I have a tumblr @imstillabiggay and over there I’ll be taking prompts and requests!


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